Bail for Princess Catherine

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December 13, 1921

Princess Catherine Radziwill was held today on $1,000 bail "on a charge of violating the hotel act," according to the New York Times.  She was charged with failing to pay $1,239.00 to the Hotel Embassy.

Her attorney asked for "consideration from the court on the ground that she was of royal blood and closely connected with 'diplomatic circles,'" but the Assistant District Attorney told the Magistrate that the princess had served eighteen months in detention in South Africa for "swindling Cecil Rhodes in a forgery of $200,000."

The District Attorney told the court: "If the Princess will kindly take the stand I will prove my assertion."

Princess Catherine, who is also known as Mrs. Catherine Mary Kolb-Danvin,  is 58 years old and the author of Behind the Veil at the Russian Court, The Austrian Court from Within, and several other books, under the name of Count Paul Vassili.

On October 12, she was held on $2,500 bail for the same complaint.  The manager of the Hotel Embassy filed a complaint against her, stating she had not paid her hotel bill from last April until October 7, when she left the hotel.  She had evaded paying the bill by "saying that she had not received expected funds from her bankers in London."

She has been Mrs. Kolb-Danvin since her marriage to a Frenchman, which followed the death of her first husband, Prince Wilhelm Radziwill.  She is the daughter of Count Adam Rzewski of Poland.  She had three children by her first husband. Her eldest son was killed early in the war.

The former princess is fluent in French, English, and German, and can also speak Russian and Polish. She has always held "revolutionary views."